RichardB

Cheers Chris. Yes, lived in or near Gosport most of my life, except for about 3 years Morayshire, Scotland in the early 90's, and the Isle of Wight for a spell after that.

We headed out of Langstone Harbour aboard 'Buccaneer' at about 07.30 and made for a mark off Bracklesham Bay, with bream in mind. We caught wrasse (some pretty good ones too), pout and of course dogfish a plenty ! Then I caught the first bream and we were encouraged - but only a few showed. A possible explanation for this was the large squid - some about 2 feet long in the body that started to follow pout etc. that had been caught. We could see them coming from considerable depth in the crystal clear water. Some of the pout were attacked and had chunks taken out from behind their heads. The skipper, Mick tried his best to nab some of them in the landing net but they're not daft and always managed to let go of the fish and avoid the net in the nick of time ! After a while we'd had enough of this and the decision was taken to move to a mark of roughish ground in about 45 meters of water. Once on the new mark we fished into a fairly hard running tide (although it was only a 4.1m) trying mackeral, sandeel, squid and crab. More dogfish ensued, but Rick picked up a smoothound of about 4 lb: A few more early season hounds of around the same size came to boat after this - I had two commons and a starry. Later in the afternoon the decision was taken to move out again - this time to a series of banks in 22 metres of water that Mick, the skipper wanted to try. As soon as the anchor was down and the boat settled, we trotted our baits down a bank. I let down my uptider with crab and squid on - thinking of the possibility of more smoothounds. I also put the two hook bream rig down for a try on the light downtider. On the drop - bang ! Two mackeral on ! Some of the others immediately set to feathering and dozens of mackeral soon came aboard. So, I reeled in the uptider and nose hooked a mackeral for livebait on a 6/0 hook. Quarter of an hour passed. Then I noticed the rod tip tremor, then all went slack. I picked up the rod and wound cautiously down. The rod tip slammed over and I knew this was something good. Gotta be a good bass ? suggested Mick, but it stayed deep and made several very hard runs taking line. Everyone furiousely reeled in as the fish took me from the waist of the boat and round the stern to other side. After a good deal of giving and retrieving of line we could see the fish through the clear depths - Tope ! I got her alongside and to a loud cheer Mick got the net under at last. The scales showed 27 lb. I think a couple more hounds and some doggys came out after that - I can't be sure - I was still on cloud nine as we made our way back to Langstone - sun-burned and happy !

Patronising sh1ts. He's 14.

Have a look on here David: http://www.solent-fishing-guide.co.uk/ Select Beach\Gosport from the top menu bar.

Only just seen this, as I don't visit this site much now. Thank God ! - a proper fishing report from real anglers, putting effort in and catching great fish. Well done Sam and Mat. Keep the faith.

Thanks chaps . Hi Bryan, how are you doing ? Been fishing much ?

Yes I remember the post Sam. Great to get them on the light gear too - 'proper fishin' !'

Fished the late night of Monday and early hours of Tuesday morning under the cliffs at Hillhead, Hampshire. Had the carp rod out with large mackeral baits on 4/0 pennel tackle, with bass in mind. A quiet night in the main, but at approx 1 o'clock something took off at speed with the bait and first I thought it might be a good bass. But the penny dropped when the ray sucked itself onto the seabed and refused to budge. A minute or two of careful pressure got its head up again. The result was a thornback that nudged 7 lb on the spring balance. Tuesday night saw me back, along with another local angler (Peter). We fished from 20.30 to approx 02.00 - HW at around 11.30. We each had a carp rod out fishing the mackeral baits at shortish range and a beach rod fishing rag/mackeral at varying ranges. Eels and shoal bass fell upon the rag baits enthusiastically. At about 01.30 my carp rod started nodding. I picked it up and we watched as a ray mouthed the bait and then finally moved off with it confidently. A sporting fight ended with me beaching a shore caught personal best Thornback ray at 9 lb. Both fish were returned alive and well.

Fished 21.00 - 02.45. HW - 01.49. Met up with Pete, who had dug fresh lug before my arrival (thanks mate!). We made the trek along the beach under the cliffs as darkness was slowly falling. Set up 1 rod fishing close in with mackeral fillets and head and guts, the other with 2 hook flapper with the lug fished at varying ranges. Pete was set up similarly and we were trying different combinations of bait which included spider peeler at times. I had a good looking bite on the mackeral on my first cast, which I missed as I was baiting the other rod ! As the tide flooded we had plenty of bites from shoal bass and eels on the lug. I had small schoolies and Pete an eel. Then it went quiet on the approach to HW. At the top of the tide a good bite and a strike on the rod fishing lug resulted in a lively tussle. A 4lb bass was soon on the beach: We fished on with more knocks and taps on the rods and Pete picked up another eel. After about half an hour another lunge on the 'lug' rod had me pulling into my second bass. I thought I'd lost it for a few seconds, but it was swimming towards me at a rate of knots ! I reeled fast and it went nuts in the shallows. Surprisingly it was smaller than the first at 2 and 3/4 pounds. After all my persistance with large fresh mackeral baits on 4/0 pennels and frequent groundbaiting with mackeral chunks (tactics which usually work well for me here), we could not interest the bass in it, at all. Both fish fell to a single small lugworm on a size 4 hook ! A good night after a dry spell.

I think it's a normal sized fish, but with a very small man beside it, shrunk to miniscule proportions by the pressure in the ocean depths.

An absolute beauty - well done !

Thanks chaps. Seems to have been a long time coming, although I must admit I've been on a bit a smoothhound 'thing' up till now.

22/07/06 Fished under the cliffs at Hillhead (Brownwich), 20.30 - 02.00. High water 22.24. Bait was mackeral on a 2 oz sliding ledger - 4/0 pennel rig, fished at close range. Conditions looked very promising - a warm evening with a southerly breeze putting a nice chop on the water, although the tide at 4.2 meters was slightly smaller than I would have liked. But after a bite-less few hours, tiredness was starting to get to me by about midnight (been out with the family all day) and I almost packed up. I knew though, that hanging on till the ebb got under way properly was my only chance of saving the blank. Sure enough at about 01.15 the bait runner buzzed, the rod tip was lungeing over, and at last I was winding into a fish. A lively bass that wieghed 3 lb on the dot. It took a mackeral head and guts. Although not that much to 'write home about', this marks the end of a dry spell for me bass-wise (apart from schoolies), hopefully the shape of things to come ! - it christened my new carp rod and gave a good account of itself. It will grace our table this week .

Brilliant read and great pictures Snatcher .

Typical ! Leon Rockskillers' selfish greed has cleared out another nursery area .